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Paramour + politician = power is a succinct summary of “Kingmaker.” This biography of a British-born socialite reads like a political thriller. It portrays the life of Pamela Churchill Harriman’s behind-the-scenes activities of diplomacy, seduction, and political influence spanning 50 years.
Pamela, (1920-1997), married Randolph Churchill, the scandalous son of Winston and Clementine. His last name opened doors, but his reputation as an alcoholic and womanizer kept potential brides away. Pamela wanted to move among the powerful, so she welcomed Randolph’s marriage proposal 14 days after their first meeting. During the week he proposed, Randolph “had asked nine women to marry him—including three on a single night—but Pamela was the only one to say yes.”
“Randolph kicked furniture, punched walls, and spewed torrents of verbal abuse” at his wife. Pamela soon realized she had married “a drunken, offensive adulterer.” When he was sent to war, Pamela moved in with his parents, where she could see politics from the inside. She developed a warm relationship with her in-laws by bearing a son and naming him Winston. As an insider, she met high-profile giants like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Edward R. Murrow, Frank Sinatra, and many others who shaped world events during the latter half of the 20th century.
The early chapters highlight her ties to Winston Churchill during World War II. During the war, she volunteered to help clean up the damage done by German bombings and organize meals for evacuated children. She played a key role in helping Churchill spring the United States from its isolationist position to becoming a British ally when she was only 20-years-old.
She made strategic diplomatic relations with influential men on both sides of the Atlantic by sleeping with them. “The red-headed tart” seduced high-level politicians and journalists, developing a network of power brokers that allowed her into meetings and places few women ever entered. As her popularity grew, Purnell asserts, Pamela was “a rare cocktail of flattering attention, smoldering sex appeal, and an impressive grasp of geopolitics.”
Pamela moved to the United States in 1960. She used her third marriage, this one to Averell Harriman, to quickly expand her power. She moved effortlessly between seducer, socialite, hostess, and power broker. Pamela would turn on her allure to benefit herself and to facilitate political outcomes. She was lauded for her lavish dinner parties, generosity to charitable organizations, and assisting her father-in-law in détente with Mikhail Gorbachev. She collaborated with diplomats to secure funding for specific projects, advising some of the world’s foremost politicians on key decisions.
Her career reached its zenith during Pamela’s 73rd energetic year when President Bill Clinton appointed her as the U.S. ambassador to France. In this position, Pamela no longer exercised power from behind the scenes but as an official envoy of the United States. She became a very active and effective ambassador, using her multiple skills to make Britain, France, and the United States close allies. This alliance was decisive in ending the war in Bosnia.
Her sudden death in Paris in 1997 created an outpouring of grief from President Bill Clinton and countless other politicians. She was both criticized and praised posthumously. Purnell pushes back on the scathing assessments, maintaining Harriman deserves credit as a woman who, despite the societal constraints of her time, carved out a path of her own.
Before her body left French soil, President Chirac said he would award her the Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor) at a posthumous ceremony. President Clinton responded, “We’re not going to be outdone on this.” A week later, he awarded Pamela the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, with the words: “Let history record this nation’s pride—and this president’s gratitude—for Pamela Harriman’s service to our alliance with France and our common cause of liberty.”
Purnell concludes, “By using her name, her personality, her sexuality, and her smarts, she helped to weave, sustain and elevate a web of political, military and emotional ties between America and Britain that many today call the Special Relationship. One that began between the sheets of the Dorchester Hotel. In the process, she arguably became the most influential courtesan in history.”
“Kingmaker” is a well-researched and written biography based on recently available archival material. Its 479 pages are fully noted and indexed.
About the author: Sonia Purnell is a biographer and journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Sunday Times. Her book “A Woman of No Importance” was a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Plutarch Award for best biography. NPR, the New York Public Library, and other organizations chose it as Best Book of the Year.
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